springer netherlands aug 2015 (177 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book takes a new approach on understanding causes of extreme poverty and promising actions to address it. Its focus is on marginality being a root cause of poverty and deprivation. ¿Marginality¿ is the position of people on the edge, preventing their access to resources, freedom of choices, and the development of capabilities. The book is research based with original empirical analyses at local, national, and local scales; book contributors are leaders in their fields and have backgrounds in different disciplines. An important message of the book is that economic and ecological approaches and institutional innovations need to be integrated to overcome marginality. The book will be a valuable source for development scholars and students, actors that design public policies, and for social innovators in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 408 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Third generation coaching proposes a form of dialogue where coach and coachee are focused on creating space for reflection through collaborative practices and less concerned with fabricating quick solutions. Aspiring to achieve moments of symmetry between coach and coachee, where their dialogue is driven by a strong emphasis on meaning-making, values, aspirations and identity issues. Coach and coachee meet as fellow-humans in a genuine dialogue.Marking a new trend in coaching, based on the acknowledgement of changes in society, learning and knowledge production, as well as leadership, while distinguishing itself from the existing models (pop coaching, GROW model, etc.). Third generation coaching is based on a fresh analysis of our society ¿ a society that is characterized by diversification, identity challenges, abolition of the monopoly of knowledge, lifelong learning, and the necessity for self-reflection.Providing quality material to guide ambitious practitioners and high level coaching education programs, in an accessible format. A Guide to Third Generation Coaching advocates a revisited and innovative approach to coaching and coaching psychology, advantageous for learners and practitioners alike, by supporting the reader as a reflective practitioner.¿In this insightful book Reinhard Stelter takes coaching to a new level. With its new perspective, it will make an outstanding contribution to the field.¿Prof Stephen Palmer, Centre for Coaching, London, UK, President of the International Society for Coaching Psychology (ISCP)¿This book is a wonderful contribution to further theoretical understanding and evidence-based practice within Coaching andCoaching Psychology. Reinhard provides us with a look at the foundations contributing to this field, the benefit of his experience and learning, and the evolution of thinking to our current state. Whether you are a coach, coaching psychologist, leader, manager or student, you will find this an excellent resource to expand your thinking, reflection, exploration, and learning on your journey.¿Diane Brennan, MBA, MCC, Past-President International Coach Federation (ICF) in 2008¿A thoughtful and wide ranging journey through the philosophy of coaching. Professor Stelter brings positive psychology, dialogue, and narrative approaches together into a model of coaching designed to meet the needs of clients in today¿s world.¿Dr. Michael Cavanagh, MClinPsy, PhD, Deputy Director, Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, The University of SydneySpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 268 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Fracture mechanics has established itself as an important discipline of growing interest to those working to assess the safety, reliability and service life of engineering structures and materials. In order to calculate the loading situation at cracks and defects, nowadays numerical techniques like finite element method (FEM) have become indispensable tools for a broad range of applications. The present monograph provides an introduction to the essential concepts of fracture mechanics, its main goal being to procure the special techniques for FEM analysis of crack problems, which have to date only been mastered by experts. All kinds of static, dynamic and fatigue fracture problems are treated in two- and three-dimensional elastic and plastic structural components. The usage of the various solution techniques is demonstrated by means of sample problems selected from practical engineering case studies. The primary target group includes graduate students, researchers in academia and engineers in practice.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 476 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars around an important question: how has migration changed in Europe as the European Union has enlarged, and what are the consequences for countries (and for migrants themselves) inside and outside of these redrawn jurisdictional and territorial borders By addressing this question the book contributes to three current debates with respect to EU migration management: 1) that recent developments in EU migration management represent a profound spatial and organizational reconfiguration of the regional governance of migration, 2) the trend towards the externalization or subcontracting of migration control and, 3) how the implications of Europe¿s changing immigration policy are increasingly felt across the European neighborhood and beyond. Based on new empirical research, the authors in this collection explore these three processes and their consequences for both member and non-member EU states, for migrants themselves, and for migration systems in the region. The collection indicates that despite the rhetoric of social and spatial integration across the EU region, as one wall has come down, new walls have gone up as novel migration and security policy frameworks have been erected ¿ making European immigration more complex, and potentially more influential beyond the EU zone, than ever.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 260 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume addresses the historical structures and current dynamics of Oman¿s regionalization processes and their political, economic and social dimensions. It is based on an interdisciplinary and trans-regional dialogue between scholars from different social sciences and area studies such as political science, economics, management, economic and social geography, history, social anthropology and linguistics as well as Middle East/West Asian, gulf and African studies, and develops four major axes of research: Oman¿s integration into global and regional flows of goods, capital, people and ideas; The multi-scaled political negotiation of such integration (or disintegration) processes; Consequences of suchlike processes and forms of regionalization for (translocal) actors; Ideas and strategic communication of regional belonging and the constitution of regions.Each chapter deals with one or more of these issues. PartI deals with concepts of regionalisation and region-building and presents different approaches that accentuate certain dimensions of these processes and come from different disciplinary backgrounds. Part II focuses on the translocal, transnational and (trans)regional movement of people, their practices and imaginations, be they contemporary labour in- and out-migrants, returnees from Eastern Africa or nomadic tribal members. Part III takes a closer look particularly at economic issues and regionalisation processes that are mainly based on multiple trade links, regional development policies or politics of regionalism. Part IV analyses political and socio-cultural issues in regional and global perspectives.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 364 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Becoming a caregiver is increasingly an inevitable experience for many people and, therefore, a likely life transition. Drawing on research and personal experiences of working with family caregivers, this book examines a range of family caregiving situations from across the life course. It seeks to capture the dynamics of caregiving in a number of common situations: caregiving during infancy, for adults who acquire a disability through accidents or illness, for older people with age-related issues, and caregiving by children and adolescent carers and grandparent carers. In drawing attention to key moments of vulnerability faced by family and informal caregivers, and by suggesting how to assist ¿reconnection¿ at these moments, the book provides a guide for those working in the area of health, disability and care.Informal care is conceptualised as occurring with the context of personal interrelationships, these being nested within wider kin networks and linked with wider professional formal care networks. Informal care is seen both as an expression of social capital and as an activity that builds social capital. It is an indicator of resources of mutual support within social networks, and it has the effect of adding to the stock of social resources. The book makes a case, therefore, for facilitating the development of social capital by strengthening the capacity of informal caregivers and caregiver groups, and by improving the linkages with formal care organisations.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Religion is back again in Europe after never having been gone. It is manifest in the revival of religious institutions and traditions in former communist countries, in political controversies about the relationship between the church(es) and the state and about the freedom of religion and the freedom to criticize religion, and in public unease about religious minorities. This book is about religion and civil society in Europe. It moves from general theoretical and normative approaches of this relationship, via the examination of national patterns of religion-state relations, to in-depth analyses of the impact of religion and secularization on the values, pro-social attitudes and civic engagement of individuals. It covers Europe from the Lutheran North to the Catholic South, and from the secularized West to the Orthodox East and Islamic South-East with comparative analyses and country studies, concluding with an overall Europe-USA comparison.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of social psychological research on inequality for a graduate student and professional audience. Drawing on all of the major theoretical traditions in sociological social psychology, its chapters demonstrate the relevance of social psychological processes to this central sociological concern. Each chapter in the volume has a distinct substantive focus, but the chapters will also share common emphases on: ¿ The unique contributions of sociological social psychology ¿ The historical roots of social psychological concepts and theories in classic sociological writings ¿ The complementary and conflicting insights that derive from different social psychological traditions in sociology. This Handbook is of interest to graduate students preparing for careers in social psychology or in inequality, professional sociologists and university/college libraries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 776 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book focusses on questions of individual and collective action, the emergence and dynamics of social norms and the feedback between individual behaviour and social phenomena. It discusses traditional modelling approaches to social norms and shows the usefulness of agent-based modelling for the study of these micro-macro interactions. Existing agent-based models of social norms are discussed and it is shown that so far too much priority has been given to parsimonious models and questions of the emergence of norms, with many aspects of social norms, such as norm-change, not being modelled. Juvenile delinquency, group radicalisation and moral decision making are used as case studies for agent-based models of collective action extending existing models by providing an embedding into social networks, social influence via argumentation and a causal action theory of moral decision making. The major contribution of the book is to highlight the multifaceted nature of the dynamics of social norms, consisting not only of emergence, and the importance of embedding of agent-based models into existing theory.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book provides an overview of the health of developing nations in the early twenty-first century. The basic assumption is that the health of a population is not independent of broader demographic trends, and does follow the health transition model. The coverage is broad, ranging from health transition in developing countries, to the health of women, to an analysis of morbidity. Population health is an essential component of human and social development. As both a means and an end of development, health lies at the heart of underdevelopment, and ranks first on the list of international priorities. The WHO slogan ¿Health for all in 2000¿ reflects the spirit of a more general movement in favor of health promotion throughout the world. But the developing world is far from reaching this aim. The health of populations has improved in developing regions but there are still deep inequalities, and serious problems remain, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. After reviewing the core concepts of population health, the book examines health transition in developing countries, a process that has resulted in a double burden of diseases. A discussion of mortality in developing countries serves to highlight the high rates of child mortality in these regions. The book devotes a full chapter to women¿s health, and its chapter-length analysis of morbidity highlights the double burden weighing down developing populations and concludes with an analysis of health systems in developing countries.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is intended for researchers who are interested in investigating the nanomechanical properties of materials using advanced instrumentation techniques. The chapters of the book are written in an easy-to-follow format, just like solved examples. The book comprehensively covers a broad range of materials such as polymers, ceramics, hybrids, biomaterials, metal oxides, nanoparticles, minerals, carbon nanotubes and welded joints. Each chapter describes the application of techniques on the selected material and also mentions the methodology adopted for the extraction of information from the raw data.This is a unique book in which both equipment manufacturers and equipment users have contributed chapters. Novices will learn the techniques directly from the inventors and senior researchers will gain in-depth information on the new technologies that are suitable for advanced analysis. On the one hand, fundamental concepts that are needed to understand the nanomechanical behavior of materials is included in the introductory part of the book. On the other hand, dedicated chapters describe the utilization of advanced numerical modeling in understanding the properties of complex materials.This book is useful for students and researchers from diverse backgrounds including chemistry, physics, materials science & engineering, biotechnology and biomedical engineering.It is well suited as a textbook for students andas a reference book for researchers.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 360 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Environmental sustainability issues in a fragile, semi-arid region and its coastal area, which experience climate changes from extreme drought conditions to the effects of hurricanes over a period of weeks to years, provide specific challenges for the ecosystems and the populations existing within the region. The research presented focuses on the problems and some solutions specific to the South Texas-Mexico border region, on both sides of the Rio Grande, focusing on water and air pollution.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 212 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book describes the state of the art on computational modeling and fabrication in Tissue Engineering. It is inspired by the ECCOMAS thematic conference, the European Committee on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences, on Tissue Engineering, held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 2-4, 2011.Tissue Engineering is a multidisciplinary field involving scientists from different fields. The development of mathematical methods is quite relevant to understand cell biology and human tissues as well to model, design and fabricate optimized and smart scaffolds.Emphasis is put on mathematical and computational modeling for scaffold design and fabrication. This particular area of tissue engineering, whose goal is to obtain substitutes for hard tissues such as bone and cartilage, is growing in importance.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book addresses the questions: Is Australiäs rapidly growing human population and economy environmentally sustainable for its estuaries and coasts What is needed to enable sustainable development To answer these questions, this book reports detailed studies of 20 iconic Australian estuaries and bays by leading Australian estuarine scientists.That knowledge is synthesised in time and space across Australia to suggest what Australian estuaries will look like in 2050 and beyond based on socio-economic decisions that are made now, and changes that are needed to ensure sustainability.The book also has a Prologue by Mr Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia, which bridges environmental science, population policy and sustainability.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 312 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The surface of materials is routinely exposed to various environmental influences. Surface modification presents a technological challenge for material scientists, physicists, and engineers, particularly when those surfaces are subjected to function within human body environment. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the major issues and topics dealing with interaction of soft living matter with the surface of implants. Fundamental scientific concepts are embedded through experimental data and a broad range of case studies. First chapters cover the basics on biocompatibility of many different thin films of metals, alloys, ceramics, hydrogels, and polymers, following with case studies dealing with orthopedic and dental coatings. Next, a novel and low-cost coating deposition technique capable of production of several types of nanostructures is introduced through simple calculations and several illustrations. Moreover, chapter 6 and 7 present important topics on surface treatment of polymers, which is a subject that has seen many developments over the past decade. The last chapters target mainly the applications of coatings in biology such as in bio-sensing, neuroscience, and cancer detection. With several illustrations, micrographs, and case studies along with suitable references in each chapter, this book will be essential for graduate students and researchers in the multidisciplinary field of bio-coatings.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 372 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume presents new methodologies for the design of dimension stone based on the concepts of structural design while preserving the excellence of stonemasonry practice in façade engineering. Straightforward formulae are provided for computing action on cladding, with special emphasis on the effect of seismic forces, including an extensive general methodology applied to non-structural elements. Based on the Load and Resistance Factor Design Format (LRDF), minimum slab thickness formulae are presented that take into consideration stress concentrations analysis based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) for the most commonly used modern anchorage systems. Calculation examples allow designers to solve several anchorage engineering problems in a detailed and objective manner, underlining the key parameters. The design of the anchorage metal parts, either in stainless steel or aluminum, is also presented.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -In a time of rapid climatic, industrial and technological changes in molluscan shellfish producing and exporting regions, it is of the utmost importance to keep a keen eye on developing trends. This collection of recent research in molluscan shellfish safety, risk assessment, risk management, regulation and analytical methods presented at the 8th ICMSS (International Conference on Molluscan Shellfish Safety) offers valuable insights in the latest scientific findings.Dans le contexte actuel de changements climatiques, industriels et technologiques rapides dans les régions qui produisent et qui exportent des mollusques, il est essentiel de rester à l¿affût des nouvelles tendances. Ce recueil des récents travaux de recherche dans les domaines de la salubrité des mollusques, des évaluations des risques, de la gestion des risques, de la réglementation et des méthodes d¿analyse présentés lors de la 8e Conférence internationale sur la salubrité des coquillages (ICMSS) vous aidera à le faire.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Knowing the safety factor for limit states such as plastic collapse, low cycle fatigue or ratcheting is always a major design consideration for civil and mechanical engineering structures that are subjected to loads. Direct methods of limit or shakedown analysis that proceed to directly find the limit states offer a better alternative than exact time-stepping calculations as, on one hand, an exact loading history is scarcely known, and on the other they are much less time-consuming.This book presents the state of the art on various topics concerning these methods, such as theoretical advances in limit and shakedown analysis, the development of relevant algorithms and computational procedures, sophisticated modeling of inelastic material behavior like hardening, non-associated flow rules, material damage and fatigue, contact and friction, homogenization and composites.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Polycrystalline SiGe has emerged as a promising MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) structural material since it provides the desired mechanical properties at lower temperatures compared to poly-Si, allowing the direct post-processing on top of CMOS. This CMOS-MEMS monolithic integration can lead to more compact MEMS with improved performance. The potential of poly-SiGe for MEMS above-aluminum-backend CMOS integration has already been demonstrated. However, aggressive interconnect scaling has led to the replacement of the traditional aluminum metallization by copper (Cu) metallization, due to its lower resistivity and improved reliability.Poly-SiGe for MEMS-above-CMOS sensors demonstrates the compatibility of poly-SiGe with post-processing above the advanced CMOS technology nodes through the successful fabrication of an integrated poly-SiGe piezoresistive pressure sensor, directly fabricated above 0.13 ¿m Cu-backend CMOS. Furthermore, this book presents the first detailed investigation on the influence of deposition conditions, germanium content and doping concentration on the electrical and piezoresistive properties of boron-doped poly-SiGe. The development of a CMOS-compatible process flow, with special attention to the sealing method, is also described. Piezoresistive pressure sensors with different areas and piezoresistor designs were fabricated and tested. Together with the piezoresistive pressure sensors, also functional capacitive pressure sensors were successfully fabricated on the same wafer, proving the versatility of poly-SiGe for MEMS sensor applications. Finally, a detailed analysis of the MEMS processing impact on the underlying CMOS circuit is also presented.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Land degradation in drylands is a multi-faceted problem. Consequently, current management approaches that attempt to mitigate such land degradation often fail to produce significant improvements. The processes associated with land degradation in drylands fall at the interface of ecology and geomorphology. For a better understanding of this degradation, there is a need to uncover the underlying dynamics and characteristic responses to environmental drivers and human-induced disturbances. A primary characteristic of this land degradation is a change in processes and the emergence of patterns; but there remain many unknowns as to how these changing processes and emerging patterns are connected. In the first section of this keystone manual, the theory of ecogeomorphic pattern-process linkages is explored, establishing an integrated view of current concepts of pattern emergence and self-organization from an ecogeomorphic perspective. The second section of the book explores methods for confronting models with data for the study of pattern-process linkages, bringing together divergent empirical and modelling methodologies to provide a fully integrated understanding of land degradation in drylands. Four case studies from drylands in Europe, Africa, Australia and North America outline the advances in ecogeomorphic research that have been made in these systems. Learning from this diverse range of studies and approaches, a research agenda for the emerging field of ecogeomorphology in land-degradation studies in drylands is set forth.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book is primarily intended as a research monograph that could also be used in graduate courses for the design of parallel algorithms in matrix computations.It assumes general but not extensive knowledge of numerical linear algebra, parallel architectures, and parallel programming paradigms.The book consists of four parts: (I) Basics; (II) Dense and Special Matrix Computations; (III) Sparse Matrix Computations; and (IV) Matrix functions and characteristics. Part I deals with parallel programming paradigms and fundamental kernels, including reordering schemes for sparse matrices. Part II is devoted to dense matrix computations such as parallel algorithms for solving linear systems, linear least squares, the symmetric algebraic eigenvalue problem, and the singular-value decomposition. It also deals with the development of parallel algorithms for special linear systems such as banded ,Vandermonde ,Toeplitz ,and block Toeplitz systems. Part III addresses sparsematrix computations: (a) the development of parallel iterative linear system solvers with emphasis on scalable preconditioners, (b) parallel schemes for obtaining a few of the extreme eigenpairs or those contained in a given interval in the spectrum of a standard or generalized symmetric eigenvalue problem, and (c) parallel methods for computing a few of the extreme singular triplets. Part IV focuses on the development of parallel algorithms for matrix functions and special characteristics such as the matrix pseudospectrum and the determinant. The book also reviews the theoretical and practical background necessary when designing these algorithms and includes an extensive bibliography that will be useful to researchers and students alike.The book brings together many existing algorithms for the fundamental matrix computations that have a proven track record of efficient implementation in terms of data locality and data transfer on state-of-the-art systems, as well as several algorithms that are presented for the first time, focusing on the opportunities for parallelism and algorithm robustness.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 504 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -Recent developments in biology and nanotechnology have stimulated a rapidly growing interest in the mechanics of thin, flexible ribbons and Mobius bands.This edited volume contains English translations of four seminal papers on this topic, all originally written in German; of these, Michael A. Sadowsky published the first in 1929, followed by two others in 1930, and Walter Wunderlich published the last in 1962.The volume also contains invited, peer-reviewed, original research articles on related topics.Previously published in the Journal of Elasticity, Volume 119, Issue 1-2, 2015.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 360 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book addresses this critical need by providing a straightforward and easy to read primer to key elements of at-risk butterfly conservation programs including captive husbandry, organism reintroduction, habitat restoration, population monitoring, recovery planning and cooperative programs.Impacts from habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change continue to accelerate the rate of imperilment and necessitate increased conservation action.Zoos, natural history museums, botanical gardens and wildlife agencies are progressively focusing on insects, particularly charismatic groups such as butterflies and native pollinators, to help advance local conservation efforts and foster increased community interest and engagement.Today, many institutions and their partners have successfully initiated at-risk butterfly conservation programs, and numerous others are exploring ways to become involved. However, insufficient experience and familiarity with insects is a critical constraint preventing staff and institutions from adequately planning, implementing and evaluating organism-targeted activities.The information provided is intended to improve staff practices, learn from existing programs, promote broader information exchange, and strengthen institutional ability to develop new or improve existing butterfly conservation initiatives.The information provided is intended to improve staff practices, learn from existing programs, promote broader information exchange, and strengthen institutional ability to develop new or improve existing butterfly conservation initiatives.This book will be useful to professionals from zoos, natural history museums, botanical gardens, wildlife agencies, conservation organizations, land managers, students, and scientist in conservation biology, ecology, entomology, biology, and zoology.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 200 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book presents a stochastic analysis based on production risk and application of this method in the industrial sector under production risk where energy use is an input factor. Using South Korea as a case study, the book empirically models energy demand at the industrial level and analyzes the results to identify key determinants of energy demand, productions level, productions risk and energy usage efficiency.Particular attention is paid to the factors that enhance production risk or increase variations in energy input during production. A dynamic panel model is specified and applied to 25 Korean industrial sectors over the period 1970-2007. The determinants of energy usage are identified and their effects in the form of elasticities of energy usage are estimated. In addition the structural changes in the energy demand pattern are explored. Stochastic production technology is applied to create two primary models: A production model where the energy usage is a determinant of output and an energy demand model based on an inverted factor demand model where demand is a key determinant of the level of energy usage.The findings reveal that: First, there are large variations in the degree of overuse or inefficiency in energy usage among the individual industries and over time; second, ICT (information and communication technology) capital and labor are substituting energy; third, ICT capital and value added services are two input factors decreasing the variability of energy demand while non-ICT capital, material and labor are increasing the variability of energy demand. Finally, the results suggest that technical progress contributes more to the increase of mean of energy demand than to the reduction of the level of risk. An emerging recommendation is that industries increase the level of ICT capital and digitalization and invest more in R&D activities and value added services to reduce the uncertainty related to their demand for energy.This study forms the structure of the demand for energy under stochastic production risk for the South Korean industrial sector. Public research programs aimed at the industrial sector should be concerned about both mean and risk properties in research on new technologies and in the investigation of possible alternative energy inputs.This book describes the state of the art in energy usage analysis and production risk, applying factor requirement methodology. It will be of use as a main or supplementary text in the teaching of advanced graduate courses but also as a reference for those working on empirically advanced research. The book is an important addition to the existing literature on industrial development, with its focus on energy as a core production input.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 216 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The chapters in this book present state-of-the-art geomatics technologies applied in global environmental studies. This text provides the latest research findings and delivers complete references to related publications. This book will motivate the undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practitioners to better understand the environmental changes with informed solutions.Global Change studies are increasingly considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, especially in the framework of human-induced, climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems and geomatics technologies provide a unique tool to monitor and model the changes, respectively. While the range of applications and innovative techniques are always increasing, this book provides a summary of key study cases where satellite data offers critical information to understand the usefulness of the geomatics technologies and global environmental issues. Geomatics technologies provide powerful tools to model and analyze the effects of those global environmental changes towards minimizing their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 332 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book details the analysis and design of high rise buildings for gravity and seismic analysis. It provides the knowledge structural engineers need to retrofit existing structures in order to meet safety requirements and better prevent potential damage from such disasters as earthquakes and fires.Coverage includes actual case studies of existing buildings, reviews of current knowledge for damages and their mitigation, protective design technologies, and analytical and computational techniques. This monograph also provides an experimental investigation on the properties of fiber reinforced concrete that consists of natural fibres like coconut coir and also steel fibres that are used for comparison in both Normal Strength Concrete (NSC) and High Strength Concrete (HSC). In addition, the authors examine the use of various repair techniques for damaged high rise buildings.The book will help upcoming structural design engineers learn the computer aided analysis and design of real existing high rise buildings by using ACI code for application of the gravity loads, UBC- 97 for seismic analysis and retrofitting analysis by computer models. It will be of immense use to the student community, academicians, consultants and practicing professional engineers and scientists involved in the planning, design, execution, inspection and supervision for the proper retrofitting of buildings.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 136 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This volume discusses a broad range of vital issues encompassing the production and consumption of food in the current period of climate change. All of these add up to looming, momentous challenges to food security, especially for people in regions where malnutrition and famine have been the norm during numerous decades. Furthermore, threats to food security do not stop at the borders of more affluent countries ¿ governance of food systems and changes in eating patterns will have worldwide consequences. The book is arranged in four broad sections. Part I, Combating Food Insecurity: A Global Responsibility opens with a chapter describing the urgent necessity for new paradigm and policy set to meet the food security challenges of climate change. Also in this section are chapters on meat and the dimensions of animal welfare, climate change and sustainability; on dietary options for mitigating climate change; and the linkage of forest and food production in the context of the REDD+ approach to valuation of forests. Part II, Managing Linkages Between Climate Change and Food Security offers a South Asian perspective on Gender, Climate Change and Household Food Security; a chapter on food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa; and separate chapters on critical issues of food supply and production in Nigeria, far-Western Nepal and the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Cameroon. Part III examines Food Security and patterns of production and consumption, with chapters focused on Morocco, Thailand, Bahrain, Kenya and elsewhere. The final section discusses successful, innovative practices, with chapters on Food Security in Knowledge-Based Economy; Biosaline Agriculture in the Gulf States; Rice production in a cotton zone of Benin; palm oil in the production of biofuel; and experiments in raised-bed wheat production. The editors argue that technical prescriptions are insufficient to manage the food security challenge. They propose and explain a holistic approach for adapting food systemsto global environmental change, which demands the engagement of many disciplines ¿ a new, sustainable food security paradigm.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 380 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book tests the critical potential of happiness research to evaluate contemporary high-performance societies. These societies, defined as affluent capitalist societies, emphasize competition and success both institutionally and culturally. Growing affluence improves life in many ways, for a large number of people. We lead longer, safer, and more comfortable lives than previous generations. But we also live faster, and are competition-toughened, like top athletes. As a result, we suspect limits and detect downsides of our high-speed lives. The ubiquitous maximization principle opens up a systematic gateway to the pleasures and pains of contemporary life. Using happiness as a reference point, this book explores the philosophical and empirical limits of the maximization rule. It considers the answer to questions such as: Precisely, why did the idea of (economic) maximization gain so much ground in our Western way of thinking When, and in which life domains, does maximization work, when does it fail When do qualities and when do quantities matter Does maximization yield a different (un)happiness dividend in different species, cultures, and societies ¿Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 224 pp. Englisch.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -The book addresses the interactions between wetlands and human health and well-being. A key feature is the linking of ecology-health and the targeting of practitioners and researchers. The environmental health problems of the 21st Century cannot be addressed by the traditional tools of ecologists or epidemiologists working in their respective disciplinary silos; this is clear from the emergence and re-emergence of public health and human well-being problems such as cholera pandemics, mosquito borne disease, and episodic events and disasters (e.g. hurricanes). To tackle these problems requires genuine cross-disciplinary collaboration; a key finding of the recently concluded Millennium Ecosystem Assessment when looking at human well-being and ecosystem health. This book brings the disciplines of ecology and health sciences closer to such a synthesis for researchers, teachers and policy makers interested in or needing information to manage wetlands and human health and well-being issues.Springer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 276 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware -This book asserts that language is a signaling system rather than a code, based in part on such research as the finding that 5-year-old English and Dutch children use pronouns correctly in their own utterances, but often fail to interpret these forms correctly when used by someone else.Emphasizing the unique and sometimes competing demands of listener and speaker, the author examines resulting asymmetries between production and comprehension. The text offers examples of the interpretation of word order and pronouns by listeners, and word order freezing and referential choice by speakers. It is explored why the usual symmetry breaks down in children but also sometimes in adults.Gathering contemporary insights from theoretical linguistic research, psycholinguistic studies and computational modeling, Asymmetries between Language Production and Comprehension presents a unified explanation of this phenomenon.¿Through a lucid, comprehensive review of acquisition studies on reference-related phenomena, Petra Hendriks builds a striking case for the pervasiveness of asymmetries in comprehension/production. In her view, listeners systematically misunderstand what they hear, and speakers systematically fail to prevent such misunderstandings. She argues that linguistic theory should take stock of current psycholinguistic and developmental evidence on optionality and ambiguity, and recognize language as a signaling system. The arguments are compelling yet controversial: grammar does not specify a one-to-one correspondence between form and meaning; and the demands of the mapping task differ for listeners and speakers. Her proposal is formalized within optimality theory, but researchers working outside this framework will still find it of great interest. In the language-as-code vs. language-as-signal debate, Hendriks puts the ball firmly in the other court.¿ Ana Pérez-Leroux, University of Toronto,CanadaSpringer Verlag GmbH, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.